Is This the Most Ridiculous Franchise That Actually Makes Sense?

By Tam Goldsmith

iSMASH has sold more than 100 franchise locations, and its next wave of openings could show how far this unusual entertainment business can grow.

iSMASH has sold more than 100 franchise locations by building a business around rage rooms, splatter painting and axe throwing. Investors clearly like the idea, and its next wave of openings should tell us much more about the potential of this unusual entertainment franchise.

By Tam Goldsmith

There cannot be many businesses where customers hand over money before being encouraged to destroy the contents of the room. At iSMASH, that is part of the attraction. Customers put on protective equipment, pick up something suitably heavy and start breaking televisions, bottles, glassware and electronics.

The company has also added splatter painting, axe throwing and other activities, making the business less dependent on rage rooms alone. That gives franchisees something broader to sell to birthday parties, groups of friends, corporate outings and customers looking for an evening out that is rather different from dinner or the cinema.

Franchise investors have been buying into the idea. In December 2025, iSMASH announced that it had sold more than 100 franchise locations across the US, including nearly 90 territories during the previous 18 months. More locations have opened during 2026, and founder Steven Shortino has said the company is aiming to have 35 to 40 operating by the end of the year.

Selling more than 100 franchise locations is an impressive achievement for a young brand. The next measure of its progress will be how efficiently those agreements become open businesses and how the franchisees perform once they start trading.

A Franchise Agreement Doesn't Pay the Rent

Franchise brands understandably like announcing territories sold. It shows demand from investors and gives prospective franchisees evidence that other people are confident enough in the concept to put their own money behind it. The problem comes when locations sold and locations operating are treated as though they measure the same thing.

Once an iSMASH franchisee signs an agreement, much of the expensive work is still ahead. The company's current franchise information puts estimated initial investment between $349,743 and $779,511, including a $59,950 franchise fee. Franchisees also pay a 6% royalty on gross sales.

An owner still needs to secure suitable premises, complete the build, recruit staff, arrange insurance, buy equipment, market locally and retain enough working capital for the opening period. For somebody considering an investment approaching $780,000, it therefore makes sense to speak with existing franchisees about what they eventually spent, how long it took to open and how the business performed during its first year.

As more of the locations already sold begin trading, prospective owners should have a larger pool of franchisees from which to get those answers. That will make the network increasingly useful for anyone carrying out proper due diligence.

There Is More to the Business Than Smashing Old TVs

The rage rooms attract attention, but the business underneath them is fairly straightforward. iSMASH is selling paid entertainment by the session, with the property and staff expected to generate as many worthwhile bookings as possible.

Rage rooms have an unusual advantage because much of what the customer destroys has little remaining value. If those items can be sourced cheaply and the rooms can accommodate enough sessions during busy periods, the gap between the cost of the material and what customers pay to destroy it can be attractive.

The more difficult issue is frequency. A birthday group or office team may love its first visit, but a franchisee needs enough customers to return or enough new customers to replace them. This makes the other activities offered by iSMASH more important to the investment case than they might initially appear.

Splatter painting, axe throwing and additional entertainment options allow franchisees to sell different experiences from the same premises. Parties and corporate bookings can also put several paying customers into a session rather than relying on individual admissions.

A prospective owner should therefore look closely at the revenue mix of established locations. The useful information is how much comes from rage rooms, how much comes from other activities, what proportion is generated by groups and how frequently customers return. Those figures say more about the quality of the business than the number of televisions being smashed.

The Profit Numbers Need Some Reading

iSMASH provides financial performance information to prospective owners, but there are different figures in its franchise marketing that need to be understood in context.

Its current franchise website says iSMASH locations have average net profit of $166,557 with a 21% profit margin, based on the company's 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document. Elsewhere on the same site, the company advertises average net profit of $232,285 and a margin of approximately 27.6%.

The higher figure comes with an important qualification. iSMASH says it is based on the average of its top-performing affiliate-owned location and franchise locations that had been open for more than one year, using information disclosed in Item 19 of its 2026 FDD.

Different groups of locations can produce different averages, so the existence of two figures is not by itself a problem. A prospective franchisee does, however, need to understand which group provides the more useful comparison for the location they intend to open.

That means asking how many businesses sit behind each calculation, how the median franchise performs, what those owners invested and how long they had been operating when the results were measured. It is also worth understanding how much of the reported profit depends on local rent, staffing levels and the owner's involvement in the business.

As iSMASH opens more franchises, the quality of this comparison should improve. A larger group of mature franchisees across different markets will make it easier for investors to judge what ordinary unit performance looks like rather than relying heavily on results from the earlier locations.

The Next Openings Should Tell Us Much More

iSMASH has already achieved something significant by turning a relatively unusual entertainment activity into a franchise that has attracted more than 100 location commitments. The next phase gives the company the opportunity to demonstrate that the business can perform across a much larger range of US markets.

New locations have been opening during 2026 as iSMASH works through its development pipeline. Each one adds more information about how the concept handles different property costs, wages, competition and local demand. They should also provide a clearer picture of how important birthdays, corporate groups and repeat customers are to a successful location.

The decision to offer several activities may prove particularly useful as the network grows. Rage rooms give iSMASH an immediate point of difference and generate the sort of customer content that is difficult for a conventional entertainment venue to manufacture. The additional activities then give operators more products to sell from the same premises and more reasons to approach schools, businesses, families and groups.

Shortino founded iSMASH in Rochester, New York, in 2018 after seeing a viral video. The company began offering franchises in 2021 and sold its first franchise the following year. Moving from one unusual local attraction to more than 100 committed franchise locations in a few years suggests the company has found an idea that resonates with both customers and franchise investors.

The opportunity now is to convert that demand into a substantial base of mature franchise businesses. If the current pipeline produces operators with healthy sales, sensible margins and enough repeat and group business to keep the venues busy, iSMASH will have demonstrated that rage rooms can support something considerably bigger than the novelty that first attracts customers.

What We Can Learn From This

Unusual franchises still have to answer ordinary business questions about investment, customer frequency, property costs and unit profitability. Anyone considering iSMASH should speak with established franchisees about final opening costs, group bookings, repeat visits and the contribution made by activities outside the rage rooms, while also establishing which locations sit behind the profit figures used in franchise marketing. The company's move into several entertainment activities gives franchisees more ways to generate revenue from the same premises and reduces their dependence on customers repeatedly booking a rage room. If the current wave of openings performs well, iSMASH has a credible opportunity to build a distinctive national position in experiential entertainment.
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